Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Zoe Kerr
continues to fight for a justice with regard to the derisory sentence issued to
Simon Tidswell for the murder of her two dogs Frank and Macey, initially
denying the charge, Mr Tidwell then changed his plea which afforded him a
lenient sentence. Miss Kerr and her supporters believes the laws on animal
cruelty and sentencing must be changed to help deter people from perpetrating
such crimes, they believe the sentences as they are now serve as no deterrent
and make a mockery of the court system in relation to animal abuse.

Zoe Kerr
has joined forces with a UKIP District Chairman and animal rights campaigner
Jason Smith to put the issue of proper sentences for animal abuse on the
political agenda. Jason launched a UKIP district campaign Saturday for
‘Tough Sentences for Animal Abuse’, the campaign aims to raise awareness of
issues of sentencing for animal abuse with the aim of bringing the debate to
parliament. Jason has launched a petition on the government website and
hopes to gain the 100,000 signatures required to generate a debate in the House
of Commons.

Jason
Smith says: “I was horrified after seeing the pitiful sentence passed down for
the murder of Zoe’s two dogs, as an animal rights campaigner I offered my
support to Miss Kerr and will work to help her receive justice on this tragic
event.

At the
same time I will work towards gaining the 100,000 signatures required to have
the issue of sentencing for animal abuse debated in parliament. I personally
believe animal murders of this kind should receive a jail sentence; I would
like government to set proper guidelines as we need to ensure sentences for
animal abuse are a proper deterrent.”

Zoe Kerr
says: “Not only did I lose my beautiful dogs in such a horrific way and will
never get over it, I have been completely let down by our justice system and
the criminal has worked the system to his advantage.

Animal
abusers must have a sentence that reflects the severity of their crimes and the
impact they have on the victims, my dogs were my family, I have lost my
family. The criminal has not been punished and our justice system has let
me the victim down, this needs to change, the laws need to change.”

Anybody
who supports this campaign should sign the below petitions and distribute to
family and friends:

4 comments:

Whilst I agree that this crime has caused a great deal of stress to Ms Kerr and it is utterly unacceptable, tough sentences achieve nothing. There is no evidence from anywhere in the world or at any point in time that shows that harsh punishment changes peoples behaviour. Even if this horrible man was sentenced to life in prison this crime will happen again and again.

Can you please rethink your stance on this Jason. It is not in keeping with Libertarian principles. Courting popular opinion is not good for the party’s credibility. We need sensible policies based on facts not emotion.

So should we not use harsh sentences for rape and murder then? Those crimes still happen.

The fact is that since there is no proper prison sentences dealt out to animal abusers, it creates a mockery of the poor animal who was harmed and the family it belonged to. You may be right about the crimes happening again and again regardless of the punishment, but to me it's about getting JUSTICE for the poor people effected by these monster's actions and I'm sure plenty of people would agree.

Justice is a surrogate word for vengeance in this day and age. Talking about tough sentences makes us sound like Tories. Getting tough with this abuser will not stop other abusers, we need measures of prevention not an instrument of vengeance for the victims.